Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Use the Deep Rock Galactic best perks to maximise your class damage, survivability and utility potential. This guide includes a perk tier list, template class perk setups for new players, recommended perk unlock order and detailed guidance to spend your perk points efficiently.
For quick setups and priority perk unlocks I recommend the following with alternatives detailed on this page:
- Scout – Iron Will, Medic, Resupplier, Born Ready & Vampire
- Engineer – Dash, Medic, Resupplier, Born Ready & Unstoppable
- Driller – Dash, Iron Will, Resupplier, Thorns & Vampire
- Gunner – Dash, Iron Will, Resupplier, Born Ready & Vampire
Table of Contents:
– Perk Tier List
– Perks Overview
– Best Perks For Each Class
– Recommended Perk Unlock Order
Deep Rock Galactic Perk Tier List
Perks are ranked from S to C tier based on flexibility in different situations and overall strength for the limited number of perk slots. As a certain number of perks are required to unlock higher tiers players should unlock the best rated perks currently available to them and the extra perk slots (tier 4 and 9) as soon as they are available.
| Perk Name | Tier Rating | Perk Effect |
|---|---|---|
 Dash (Active) |
S | Active: Get out of trouble with a short burst of speed. While dashing you ignore all slowdown effects. (40 / 35 / 30 / 25 seconds cooldown) Press [SPRINT] in quick succession while moving forward to activate. |
 Field Medic (Active) |
S | Passive: Leave no dwarf behind! You revive teammates 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 % faster! [Tier 4 only: Upon reviving someone, nearby enemies flee!] ALL TIERS: Active: Once per mission, you can get a downed teammate instantly back on their feet! Press [FIRE] while reviving to activate. |
 Iron Will (Active) |
S | Active: Never give up! Once per mission, get back into the fight with all your weapons reloaded and a rage-fueled strength for a 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 second last stand before going down for good! While in this state you move faster, hit harder, and are resistant to slowdowns. Make it count! Hold [JUMP] after going down to activate. |
 Resupplier (Passive) |
S | You’re a busy dwarf, got aliens to shoot! Stock up on Ammo and Health 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 % faster at the Resupply Pod. Regain an extra 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 % health when you resupply! After resupplying, all weapons instantly reload! |
 Born Ready (Passive) |
S | Unequipped weapons automatically reload after 15 / 10 / 5 seconds. |
 Vampire (Passive) |
A | Good thing you work underground! Regain 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 health when you kill a medium sized or larger creature with a melee attack! |
 Thorns (Passive) |
A | Any time an enemy hits you with a melee attack it will itself take 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 damage. |
 Sweet Tooth (Passive) |
A | Getting a taste for that stuff! Get 10 / 20 / 30 % more healing from consuming Red Sugar! [Tier 3 only: 20 % movement speed bonus for 10 seconds after consuming Red Sugar!] |
 Elemental Insulation (Passive) |
A | Get 20 / 25 / 30 % resistance to all elemental damage. |
 Unstoppable (Passive) |
A | Nothing holds you back! Environmental slow-down effects are reduced by 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 %! You move 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 % faster while carrying heavy objects! |
 Shield Link (Active) |
B | Passive: Whenever you are within 4m of a teammate, both of your shields recharge 50% faster! Active: You can overcharge a teammate’s shield to 300% for 20 / 30 / 30 seconds. (3 / 3 / 2 minutes cooldown) Press [USE] while looking at a teammate within 4m. |
 Berzerker (Active) |
B | ALL TIERS: Active: Go berzerk for 10 seconds during which you get boosted melee damage and a lightning-fast pickaxe Power Attack recharge. (10 / 8 / 6 / 4 minutes cooldown) Activate by pressing [Fire] + [Mine] while your Power Attack is recharging. |
 Beast Master (Active) |
B | Active: Charm a Glyphid Grunt to become your loyal companion. You can only have one tamed Grunt at a time. (5 minute cooldown) Tamed Grunts deal 100 / 200 / 300 % more damage to their targets! Hold [USE] while looking at a Glyphid Grunt that is within 2 m. |
 Heightened Senses (Active) |
B | Passive: You get an early warning when a creature is about to grab you. Active: 1 / 2 / 2 times per mission, you can escape after being grabbed, killing your captor in the process! (∞ / 90 / 5 seconds cooldown) Press [USE] while captive to break free. |
 Hover Boots (Active) |
B | Active: Fancy boots that let you hover in midair for 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 seconds, burning any creatures unfortunate enough to be right beneath you. (120 / 105 / 90 / 75 seconds cooldown) Long Press [CALL M.U.L.E.] while airborne to activate. Press [CALL M.U.L.E.] or [JUMP] while hovering to deactivate. |
 Deep Pockets (Passive) |
B | Leave nothing behind! Each of your mineral pouches hold +5 / 10 / 15 more valuables! |
 Friendly (Passive) |
B | Through the power of friendship you both take and deal 50% less damage from friendly fire! |
 Veteran Depositor (Passive) |
B | Expert bucked handling! You now deposit valuables into the MULE and Drop Pod 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 % faster! 20 / 20 / 20 / 30 % Damage Reduction within 7m of the MULE or other deposit points! |
 Second Wind (Passive) |
B | Passive: Get a 8 / 8 / 12 / 12 % sprint speed boost. Effect activates after running for 5 / 4.5 / 4.5 / 4 seconds. |
 See You In Hell (Active) |
C | Passive: Right after an enemy hits you with a melee attack you get a temporary melee damage bonus. Active: 3 times each mission, you can trigger a large neuro-pulse explosion after you go down. A residual neuro-electric field will electrocute and scare off enemies. (2 / 2 / 1 minute cooldown) [Tier 2 and 3 only: Neuro-pulse radius increased!] Hold [THROW GRENADE] after going down to activate. |
 It’s A Bug Thing (Passive) |
C | For some reason, Loot Bugs explode whenever you get within 2 / 5m of them…! |
 Strong Arm (Passive) |
C | You throw flares with 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 % more force than the average Dwarf! Woosh! Gems and other heavy objects get a 10 / 10 / 20 / 20 % bonus throwing force. |
Perks Overview
- Perks are account wide bonuses available to all your classes once unlocked. Perks use a prerequisite system requiring a certain number of perks in the previous perk tier before the next tier is available.
- Players start with 1 active (blue) and 1 passive (red) perk slot and can eventually equip 2 active perks and 3 passive perks with level progression.
- The second active perk slot requires you to promote that particular class while the passive perks are unlocked from the 4th and 9th perk tier.
- It is possible to unlock all perks in Deep Rock Galactic with enough time although there is currently no method to reset perk points spent.
Best Perks For Each Class
For new DRG players the best default perk setup I recommend for for each class is:
- Scout Perks (Iron Will, Medic, Resupplier, Born Ready & Vampire): The best perks for Scout enhance their inherent mobility. I recommend Scout players use both Iron Will and Medic as you already have high speed that reduces the need for Dash and allows you to be an invaluable reviving asset to your allies. If playing solo or for personal preference you can replace Field Medic with Dash and replace Vampire with Sweet Tooth as an alternative healing mechanism for the Scout given your ability to mine different Red Sugar spawns easily.
- Engineer Perks (Dash, Medic, Resupplier, Born Ready & Unstoppable): The best perks for Engineer focus on all around improvement with Dash for additional manoeuvrability, Medic to help us revive downed teammates while our turrets handle threats and Born Ready to help reload those critical secondary weapons. Given the Engineer turret combat I also find the Engineer being a primary mover of objectives which is where Unstoppable is useful although this could be swapped out for something else based on your preferences and mission types.
- Driller Perks (Dash, Iron Will, Resupplier, Thorns & Vampire): The best perks for Driller maximise this classes heavy melee attack focus by taking Vampire and pairing it with Dash and Iron Will for speed and team rescue abilities. Given the Driller weapon types primarily don’t have reload mechanics Born Ready is not a priority and instead I recommend Thorns to fend off tiny bug attacks as we are often in the thick of combat.
- Gunner Perks (Dash, Iron Will, Resupplier, Born Ready & Vampire): The best perks for Gunner maximise combat effectiveness with Dash, Iron Will, Born Ready and Vampire all combining to provide speed, damage and utility which is everything the DRG Gunner wants on missions. Sacrificing any of these perks for something else is a difficult decision as they work closely together on the Gunner and so I would not recommend deviation from this setup until you are an experienced dwarf.
Recommended Perk Unlock Order
I recommend players follow this perk unlock order to minimise the perk points required to obtain the best perks (S and A Tier) and acquire them as soon as possible. While the DRG perk UI suggests you need a specific number of perks from the previous tier to unlock the next perk tier you can meet these requirements by obtaining the required number of perks from any of the previous perk tiers.
- Field Medic I (Tier 1)
- Thorns I (Tier 1)
- Friendly I or Second Wind I (Tier 1)
- Field Medic II (Tier 2)
- Thorns II (Tier 2)
- Veteran Depositor I (Tier 2)
- Iron Will I (Tier 3)
- Resupplier I (Tier 3)
- Field Medic III (Tier 3)
- Thorns III (Tier 3)
- New Perk Slot (Tier 4)
- Iron Will II (Tier 4)
- Field Medic IV (Tier 4)
- Resupplier II (Tier 4)
- Thorns IV (Tier 4)
- Elemental Insulation I (Tier 4)
- Sweet Tooth I (Tier 4)
- Resupplier III (Tier 5)
- Iron Will III (Tier 5)
- Unstoppable I (Tier 5)
- Dash I (Tier 6)
- Vampire I (Tier 6)
- Iron Will IV (Tier 6)
- Resupplier IV (Tier 6)
- Sweet Tooth II (Tier 5)
- Born Ready I (Tier 7)
- Dash II (Tier 7)
- Vampire II (Tier 7)
- Sweet Tooth III (Tier 6)
- Unstoppable II (Tier 6)
- Dash III (Tier 8)
- Born Ready II (Tier 8)
- Vampire III (Tier 8)
- Unstoppable III (Tier 7)
- Elemental Insulation III (Tier 6)
- New Perk Slot (Tier 9)
- Dash IV (Tier 9)
- Born Ready III (Tier 9)
- Vampire IV (Tier 9)
- Unstoppable IV (Tier 8)
